SunCorp

During my recent business trip to Dubai and the U.A.E, I made a mental note about the waste that was being generated by the people living and working there.
Curious to know more about this problem, I browsed several topics on this issue on the net, and lo!! behold this is what I found about the problem, I must confess that this problem has the potential to get out of control.

Please read on:

Dubai’s per capita waste output is the world’s highest followed by the United States. Plastic grocery bags, soft-drink cans and paper are rarely recycled. One municipal official says he is amazed how expatriates change when they land in Dubai.

Concerned about Dubai's dubious distinction as the world's largest generator of waste, the municipality developed a campaign to reduce garbage. Unfortunately, it failed spectacularly.

The campaign was dubbed Target 555 and hoped to bring down the garbage generated to 555kg per person (which is the standard for the EU's Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) within four years.

The garbage generated per capita eight years ago was 725 kg per person. Instead of being reduced, the amount of waste increased and, according to the most recent figures, it is now more than double the targeted reduction goal.

Today, every person in the country generates 1,250 kg of trash annually.

A municipality official blames the failure of the community-based campaign on the "lack of public response". The other reason, he says, is the "phenomenal growth of Dubai".

The UAE has one of the highest levels of consumption in the world, with about one billion aluminium cans and glass and plastic bottles discarded every year.

It has recognised the need to implement more comprehensive measures to help prevent waste products from ending up in its landfills.
"About 40 per cent of the volume of household waste comprises beverage containers," says Lars Radberg, Managing Director of Nordic House, which distributes automated machines (RVM) that identify, sort, collect and process used beverage containers.

He said there should be incentives for people to recycle. Radberg believes that the government should enact "deposit legislation".

The consumer pays a little extra when buying the product, which is then reimbursed upon return of the empty container.

Alternative concepts such as curbside collection and bottle banks might give residents a good "green" feeling but provide no reward and then there are high transportation costs, he said.

Nordic House recently initiated its first project and has set up RVMs at 16 Emarat Petroleum stations across Dubai. Consumers are given a small gift, a discount or a raffle ticket for containers which are returned to the RVM.

While waiting for such efforts to pay off, Dubai's landfills keep filling up.

Dubai has four garbage dumps in Al Ghusais, Al Warqaa, Lehbab and Jebel Ali.

The dump at Al Ghusais, behind the Sonapur workers' housing compound, opened in 1976 and is the municipality's oldest. Dubai generates about 4,000 tonnes of garbage every day.

The only suggestion I could make is that reduce the use of disposable products in plastic, alluminium, etc. Educate the people on re-usable products be it at their place of work, at home. Shoppers could be encouraged to get their own re-usable bags rather than using plastic bags provided to them by the shopping malls.

This could make a small but siginificant impact on the overall scenario, as they saying goes "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step".

Please refer to the attached catalogue suncorp_bags_e_catalogue.pdf for our range of re-usable bags or you could write to us at sunil@suncorp.in